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European Values Study

Integrated Values Surveys 1981-2022

The European Value Study (EVS) and the World Value Survey (WVS) are two large-scale, cross-national and repeated cross-sectional survey research programmes. They include a large number of questions, which have been replicated since the early eighties.

The IVS is constructed from the EVS and WVS trend files
Both organisations have agreed on a new structure for the current EVS and WVS trend files. Based on this, the EVS archive (GESIS) has been responsible for generating the EVS Trend File 1981-2017, and the WVS archive (JDS Madrid) has been responsible for generating the WVS Trend File 1981-2022. From the two trend files, it is easy for data users to construct the Integrated Values Surveys 1981-2022 data file, which contains the five waves of the EVS and the seven waves of the WVS.

Source data files

  • EVS (2022): EVS Trend File 1981-2017. GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA7503 Data file Version 3.0.0, doi:10.4232/1.14021.
  • World Values Survey Trend File (1981-2022) Cross-National Data-Set. Madrid, Spain & Vienna, Austria: JD Systems Institute & WVSA Secretariat. Version 3.0.0, doi:10.14281/18241.27.

EVS and WVS distribute the trend files through their website and retrieval systems. Thus, regular information on the source data files and documentation, errata and version history, and documentation are provided on the EVS website and the WVS website.

The new concept of the EVS and WVS trend files
A new approach has been agreed to transform the former large EVS and WVS longitudinal data files, which contained almost all variables of the EVS and WVS waves respectively, into leaner and easier-to-use files. Both EVS and WVS trend files are based on the updated Common EVS/WVS Dictionary (v.2022). It contains only those variables/questions that have been replicated by EVS and/or WVS since the early 1980s. To identify the trend variables within EVS or WVS and across both projects, two inclusion requirements were agreed:

  • According to requirement 1, all variables that have been used at least twice in the EVS or twice in the WVS are included in the respective EVS or WVS trend file.
  • According to requirement 2, all variables that have been used at least once in the EVS and once in the WVS are included in the respective EVS or WVS trend file.

The Common EVS/WVS Dictionary (2022) gives an overview of the EVS and WVS variables included in the Integrated Values Surveys 1981-2022 constructed after merging the EVS and WVS trend files. It informs about the correspondence of the variables to the five EVS waves and seven WVS waves as well as their compliance with the agreed inclusion requirements mentioned above.

The content of data files and the relation between them is depicted in the following table.

Composition of the IVS 1981-2022

  IVS EVS Trend File WVS Trend File
Field work period 1981-2022 1981-2021 1981-2022
Number of waves 7 5 7
Number of cases 666.907 224.434 442.473
Number of variables 838 635 732
Countries and territories 118 49 108
Number of surveys 466 160 306

Access to data and documentation

Building the IVS 1981-2022

(1) Download the EVS and WVS data files and documentation from the EVS/GESIS and WVS websites.

(2) Download the syntax you will find in the study description (ZA7503) under “Download/Datasets” in the format you need (SPSS or STATA) and run it to merge the two trend files and generate the IVS 1981-2022:

  • EVS_WVS_Merge_Syntax_SPSS or
  • EVS_WVS_Merge_Syntax_STATA.

Documentation related to the IVS 1981-2022

Suggested citation of the IVS 1981-2022

Publications based on the IVS 1981-2022 should acknowledge this by means of bibliographic citations. To ensure that such source attributions are captured for social science bibliographic utilities, citations must appear in the footnotes or in the reference section of publications. Please add citations for both files included in the IVS 1981-2022.

  • EVS (2022): EVS Trend File 1981-2017. GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA7503 Data file Version 3.0.0, doi:10.4232/1.14021.
  • Haerpfer, C., Inglehart, R., Moreno, A., Welzel, C., Kizilova, K., Diez-Medrano J., M. Lagos, P. Norris, E. Ponarin & B. Puranen et al. (eds.). 2022. World Values Survey Trend File (1981-2022) Cross-National Data-Set. Madrid, Spain & Vienna, Austria: JD Systems Institute & WVSA Secretariat. Data file Version 4.0.0, doi:10.14281/18241.27.

Please send your bibliographic citation based on the IVS 1981-2022 at